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2001 Chapter beginning to come to a close

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Due to the horrific tragedies in New York and Washington, D.C., Sept. 11, 2001, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race to be held at Texas Motor Speedway the following Saturday was postponed, much like most other sports events.

The race has been rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. CDT Oct. 5, what was originally part of an open weekend on the truck schedule. Tickets purchased for the previous date will be honored for on Oct. 5, but no refunds will be offered.

This upcoming weekend will be another open weekend for the truck series before heading to South Boston, Va., for the first time. Sept. 28 will see the inaugural event at the Virginia short track for the Craftsman Truck Series. That event will be followed by the rescheduled race at Texas Motor Speedway.

A week later, on Oct. 14, truck drivers will roll the dice so to speak as they head to Las Vegas for the Nevada 250 before taking another weekend off. Then it's to Phoenix International Raceway for the Chevy Silverado 150 on Oct. 26, and the setting for the season finale will be California Speedway on Nov. 3.

The 2001 awards banquet will come soon after at Intercontinental Hotel in Miami on Nov. 8. Who'll take home the big prize is still up in the air with the top-five drivers at this point are separated by only 152 points. The top two drivers in the points chase, Jack Sprague and Joe Ruttman, are only separated by a mere 27.

There's also not a front runner for Rookie of the Year honors. Top rookies Travis Kvapil and Ricky Hendricks are only separated by one measely point.

One area in which things don'e seem to be running at a dead heat is the manufacturers' race. In the early stages of the season, it looked as if Dodge was going to dominate the entire season until its streak was ended by Chevy. From that point, Chevy and Dodge both made numerous trips to victory lane, but left Ford shut out. It took a return of Busch Series rookie phenom Greg Biffle to help Ford finally find its way into victory lane.

The 2001 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season has seen a lot of nail-biting excitement and we're still in suspense. Who know who will take the stage in Miami in November?

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